Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Let's just read this 10th verse and we'll go back to verse
1 and work our way to it. Verse 10, Paul says, Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. Now Corinth was a large, wealthy,
affluent city. There was somewhere in the neighborhood
of about 600,000 people that lived in Corinth. It was very
populated and very wealthy and affluent in Greece, in southern
Greece. And it was also a very wicked
city. This was the place where there
was lots of philosophy and there was lots of pagan idolatrous
religion. This place was the Ivy League
of education in Greece, along with Athens. It was full of vice
and it was full of moral perversion. And this place was a place where
everybody there lived for pleasure. They lived for pleasure. Sports
were huge in Greece. And they lived for pleasure.
It's a lot like the United States of America. A lot like it. And
yet, we saw in Acts 18 that the Lord told the Apostle Paul to
stay there and to preach there because he said, I have much
people in this city. So Paul did. He stayed there
and preached about two years, about a year and a half. And
the Lord established the church at Corinth. The Lord Jesus called
out and established that church. But soon as Paul left, some false
preachers came in and began to promote their false doctrine. And when they did, disorder began
to erupt in the church at Corinth. Now, it's been about five years
since Paul first preached there. when he's writing this letter.
It's been about five years. It's about the year 55 that Paul's
writing. It's been about five years. By
God's grace, Paul was determined that he was going to correct
these errors they had fallen into and help to try to reestablish
the order of the church. That was his responsibility to
do, trust in God's grace to make it effectual in their hearts.
Now, in these first ten verses, Paul hints from the first word
of this letter all the way to that tenth verse. He's given
us his introduction, his salutation and his introduction. And he
hints at some of the problems that he's going to address later
in the letter. And he also declares the remedy
for each one of those problems. And the remedy for each of those
problems is God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and His
grace by which we're saved. And each one of these, that's
what He's pointing them to. So let's just begin back up in
verse 1. Now first of all, the false preachers that came into
Corinth, they were questioning Paul's apostleship. They were
putting a question mark on whether or not Paul was a true apostle
of the Lord Jesus. And Paul opens the letter with
this. Verse 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the will of God. Now that's more than just an
opening statement. That's a purposed, direct statement
that Paul's writing. The same slander was being spread
in Galatia. And when Paul opened up his letters
to Galatia, he wrote this, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither
by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised
him from the dead." And this is what he's saying here. Now
you know the story of Paul on the road to Damascus. The Lord
Jesus Christ appeared to him personally and called him directly. And that's what was required
to be an apostle. You had to be called in person
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The word apostle means messenger. It means missionary. It means
one sent out to preach the gospel. And that's what Christ did. He
called Paul personally, directly, gave him a divine commission
from God to go forth and preach the gospel in his name. And therefore,
Paul's call and his apostleship was through the will of God.
God the Father chose Paul in Christ. That was his will. God
the Father predestinated Paul to be conformed to the image
of Christ. That was his will. God the Father ordained for Paul
to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. That was his will. And therefore,
through the will of God, the Lord Jesus Christ called Paul.
The will of God our Father and the will of Christ are one. He
said, I and my Father are one. And so, his calling was through
the will of God. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. This is one of the places where
Paul will address this issue, this problem, and he says something
there too. He wrote about how Christ was
crucified and He died and He arose all according to the Scriptures. And then he said this in 1 Corinthians
15, 7. He said, After that, He was seen
of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all, He was seen
of me also, as of one born out of due time. That's what Paul
called himself. For I'm the least of the apostles,
that I'm not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. But, by the grace of God, I am
what I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me. Therefore, he said, whether it
were I or they, whoever it was that preached, so we preached. We preached by Christ in His
name, and we preached Christ, and so you believed. So that's
Paul's word. Now, we don't have apostles today.
Nobody's being called directly in person by the Lord Jesus Christ
today, but every true preacher, every true preacher, every true
missionary, every true teacher that's called of God is called
by Christ and sent by Christ to preach the gospel. I'm so
thankful that the Lord gave me the grace to not want to ever
put myself in a pulpit, to not to not do that. And I'm thankful
the way this came about, that I came here and preached for
a year or two or however long it was, but it was a long time
and it was slow and the Lord put our hearts together and it
was done that way. Because you want to be called
and sent by Christ, not of your own will and your own doing.
And that's how it was. Now that's how Paul was sent.
Directly called by Christ, sent by Christ. Alright, now secondly,
false preachers were also questioning Paul's doctrine. They were questioning
if Paul was preaching the truth of the gospel. And Paul, that
may be why he writes this in verse 1, he adds, "...and sothe
the knees our brother." Sothe the knees our brother. This helps
to convey to them that Paul is preaching the truth. They haven't
seen Paul. It's not like our day where you
can just get online and see what somebody is preaching. They haven't
seen him or heard him. But having this knowledge that Sosthenes
is with him, that gives them an idea Paul is preaching the
truth. Because they knew Sosthenes. They saw what Christ did in him
and did for him and made him steadfast in the gospel. And
they knew he wouldn't be with Paul if Paul wasn't preaching
the truth. You saw there in Acts 18, Paul preached there in Corinth
and the Jews got so angry, they were so upset with his gospel
that they took him before the judgment seat to try to get Galil
to shut his mouth. And he wouldn't do anything.
And when he didn't do anything, the Lord had called Crispus,
who was the chief ruler of the synagogue. And the Jews replaced
him with Sosthenes. And when the governor wouldn't
do anything to shut Paul's mouth, And Sosthenes obviously was going
to give him a platform to preach in the synagogue. They turned
around and beat Sosthenes right there before the judgment seat.
But he didn't back up. He didn't renounce the gospel.
He stood fast even though they beat him. And that tells you
he was steadfast in the gospel. So for him to be with Paul, And
them to be together, that would tell them Paul is preaching the
truth. And notice here, he refers to him as our brother. Meaning,
he is your brother and he is my brother. Meaning, we are brethren
in Christ. And so that gives us some indication
of what Paul is preaching. God gives us faithful brethren.
And the faithful brethren He gives us, He gives us to defend
us, He gives them to comfort us. He gives them to help us
in the ministry to serve the Lord. And we ought to thank God
for them constantly because they are very valuable. Sosthenes
was a valued brother to Paul. Alright, here is the third thing.
These are just giving us some hints of what we are going to
see as we go through 1 Corinthians on Thursday nights. The Corinthian
church had trouble from the idolatrous religions that were around them.
And at the heart of this trouble, they failed to acknowledge, to
recognize the distinction that God has put between His church
and the world. They failed to recognize the
distinction God has made between His people, His church, and idolatrous
religion. And so Paul writes this. He hints
at this problem right here. He says, he reminds them who
they are. He says, verse 2, unto the church
of God, the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints. The church belongs
to God. The church is not, it doesn't
belong to the world. The world has never done anything
for the church of God. fight against the church of God,
try to kill the church of God, but the church is God's church. He bought it. He bought it. God bought the church with His
own blood. It's the church of God because
He bought it. Acts 20 tells us this. Acts 20, 28 refers to the church
as the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood. That was God on that cross. purchasing
the church with His own blood. And it's His. Over in Psalm 74-2,
the psalmist there wrote, Remember thy congregation. He's talking
to God. Remember thy congregation, which
thou hast purchased of old, the rod of thine inheritance. The church is God's inheritance.
And he says, which thou hast redeemed. That purchase was a
redemption. The church was redeemed by God. This Mount Zion wherein thou
hast dwelt. Remember the Hebrew writer says,
you've not come to a mountain that can be touched. We're not
talking about earthly Mount Zion. We're talking about God's church.
We're talking about heavenly Jerusalem. We're talking about
the church of the firstborn. We're talking about that church
over which God is the judge, the church of which Christ is
the mediator. who saves it by His covenant.
The church which He says, refuse not him that speaks from heaven.
This is the church we're talking about. It's God's church. It's
His church. And then look, He says, you're
at Corinth. You're at that evil, wicked place. You're at this place surrounded
by idolatry. You're in the middle of this
evil world. But, He says, you're them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus. You're them that are called to
be saints. Now we looked at this, and so I won't go in great depth
on it, but sanctified in Christ Jesus means we're sanctified
in Christ by God the Father by divine election. He chose us
and separated us from the rest of this world into Christ when
He put us in Christ before the foundation of the world. We're
sanctified in Christ by God the Son when He came and redeemed
us by His blood. And then we're sanctified by
God the Holy Spirit when He regenerates us and calls us into Christ.
Now, sin involves three things. I'm going to just tell you this
in a shorter, little different way than I preached the whole
message to you the other day when we saw the will of God in
sanctification. Sin involves three things. It
involves guilt before the law. It involves pollution of our
nature. And it involves separation from God. That's what happened
because of our sin in Adam. We're guilty before the law,
we're polluted in our nature, we're separated from God. Well,
the guilt of our sin was expiated by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ when He laid down His life at Calvary. That took care
of the guilt of our sin. Look at Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And He separated
us. And this is what He uses to say,
now you be separate from this world. Look here. Hebrews 13
verse 12. He says, Wherefore Jesus... Let's begin in verse 11. He says,
The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin, they're burned without the count. That's
where their bodies are burned, without the camp, outside of
the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go therefore,
let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing
his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come." He's saying, don't be like the
world. Don't act like the world. Don't
dress like the world. Don't talk like the world. Don't
think like the world. Go forth out to Christ and bear
His reproach and be separate from the world. Because He's
bought us. And there's how our guilt was put away. And then,
when we're renewed in spirit by the Holy Ghost, we're given
a new heart, a new nature. So that now, that pollution is
taken care of. And then concerning our consecration,
he says there in our text, you're called saints. And the word there
means this. Concerning our consecration,
it means we're rendered sacred. We're rendered consecrated to
the service of God by the call of God. So now you've got our
guilt taken care of. He says it's all in Christ Jesus.
Well, in Christ as our head and our representative, we're justified
from all our sins. In Christ as a branch is in the
vine, just like a branch is connected to the vine, we're purified by
His Spirit. Just like the sap goes out of
the vine into the branch, His Spirit's going out of Him into
us so that united with Him, we're purified in Spirit. And then
by His call, we're separated and consecrated unto His service. That's how we're sanctified.
That's how we're sanctified. And so, in 1 Peter 2.9, now look
at this, 1 Peter 2.9, Paul here, I mean Peter here, is speaking
about the church of God. You know in those verses just
before what I'm going to read to you here, that he's speaking
of the church of God. And he says this, 1 Peter 2.9,
He says, therefore, we're not of this world. We're separated
and we're separated for a purpose. Verse 9, you're a chosen generation. You're a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation. You're
a peculiar people. That doesn't mean an odd and
strange people. That means you've been sanctified,
you've been chosen. and redeemed and sanctified and
separated and consecrated to God. You're a peculiar people.
And he says, that you should show forth the praises of Him
who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. When
we get that, when we get that, when we understand that, the
church of God doesn't try to look like the world. That's what
this idolatrous church in our generation is trying to do. They
think if you tell believers or tell folks they come to church
dressed like they just came from the beach, they'll all come and
they'll want to honor God that way. No, that's just trying to
make the church look like the world. God's church is not going
to try to look like the world because we've been separated
out of it. That's our salvation. That's our salvation. All right,
now fourthly, the church at Corinth was divided. They were divided. They were in factions. Now, they
were one assembly. They were just one church, one
local church. But they were divided. They were
separated off into factions. They had fallen into cliques.
And Paul hints at this by reminding them that all God's saints, everywhere,
wherever they are, in every place they are, they're one. Look here,
verse 2. He says, I'm writing this to
you. And now He says, With all that
in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both their Lord and our Lord. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the
truth. All in every place, whoever they
are, that are called by God our Father through the Lord Jesus
Christ, that are sanctified into Christ Jesus through the will
of God, that are called, consecrated for God's service, for God's
use, they are one with Christ and with one another in His Church. They're one. They're one. Let
the true Church of God's not divided. Right now, there's a
local church and we're independent. We don't have a governing body
of believers over us or a earthly priest or anything like that.
We're governed by our head, Christ the Lord. And so is every other
local church. And right now we're divided by
hills and valleys, but if you could take all those hills and
valleys away, the church of God in Christ is one. And people
will say, well, you can't say that because that's what the
Roman Catholic Church says. If you did away with everything
that men corrupt and defile by their false doctrine, you'd have
to throw the whole Bible away. But just because men preach something
false by it and abuse the truth of it, doesn't mean we're going
to quit preaching the truth of it. We preach the truth of it.
Now, it's evident the Church of God is one whenever you consider
what it is to call on the name of our Lord. He says, all and
every place that call the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. What
does it mean to call the name of our Lord? Jesus Christ our
Lord. What does it mean to call on
His name? Well, first of all, Zephaniah
3.9. If you can find it, it's right after, I believe it's right
before Haggai. I had to mark it. Let me see
if I can find it. Yeah, right before Haggai, Zephaniah
3 in verse 9. The Lord promised this, and He
did this on the day of Pentecost. This is where we see Him start
doing this. He's talking about after I've
went to the cross, after I've redeemed my people. He says in
verse 9, then will I turn to the people of pure language. That's the pure language of the
gospel. I'll turn to them a pure language that they may all call
upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent."
It don't matter where they are. It don't matter if they're in
the same room or in different rooms in different churches. But he said, I'm going to give
them one language and one heart and one consent to serve me with
one consent. That's Christ giving you a pure
heart and a pure mind, a holy heart and a holy mind to hear
this gospel and believe on Christ and serve Him and honor Him and
call on His name with one mind, one heart, one consent. That's
what He does for His people. In Zechariah 14, verse 9, He
said, The Lord shall be a king over all the earth. And He said,
In that day shall there be one Lord, and His name shall be one. What did He say the name of His
church would be? The Lord our righteousness. That's
His name. His name will be one. Last Sunday
we heard Him declare this. He said, all the ends of the
world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindred
of the nations shall worship before Thee. Christ said that. He said, that's what I'm going
to bring about. I'm going to bring them out of the world and
all the different kindreds and all the different places. And
I'm going to bring them all to worship before You. And I'm going
to give them one language to worship You with one consent.
And so when he does that, we cry out and we say, I'll offer
to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And I will call upon the name
of the Lord. So that's the first thing it
means. It means to be given one heart and one mind to serve him
with one consent, with his one pure gospel language. And then
another thing it means is, is to call on God in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. to call on Him in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm trying to show you how this
makes God's people, one church, wherever we are. Wherever we
are. We've got one gospel. We're calling
on Him with one consent. We're calling on Him with one
name. And we're praising Him for the one and same thing. We're
absolutely dependent on Him for everything. And then also, we're
calling on Him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our holiness and our righteousness so that we come into that holy
presence of God into the holiest of holies like we saw when we're
sanctified. We saw that last week. So we
enter in. He said, Whatsoever you shall
ask in my name, that will I do that my Father may be glorified
in His Son. Nobody in the church has come
in a different way. We're all coming that way in
His name. And then thirdly, to call on
the name of the Lord means we're called by the name of the Lord.
He said there I'll give them one name. My name will be one
name. And he said in Jeremiah 23.6,
this is the name wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our
righteousness. And he said in Jeremiah 33.16, this is the name
wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. Look
at Ephesians chapter 3. Look at verse 15. Well, let's look at verse 14.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 15. Of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. The whole family. Whether they're
in heaven or earth, that's their name. with one name. So that's what it is. You don't
call on the name of the Lord until you've been put in His
church. Born of God, sanctified into Christ, consecrated to Him
by the will of God, then you start calling on His name with
a pure language, through the name of the Lord Jesus, wearing
His name in truth, the name of our Father. Now Paul addressed
this issue a little more fully down in verse 12. Now let's just
look at it briefly for now. Verse 12. He says, Now this I
say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos,
and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Now understand what they were
saying. Paul and Apollos and Peter and Christ all preached
to different assemblies of people in different places at different
times. They all did. Sometimes their
paths crossed and they were together, but for the most part they were
apart preaching. And the Lord saved people through
all of them's ministries so that they all had some converts. And
now, at Corinth, some of all of their converts are all in
the same local church together. Some were called by Paul, some
were called by Apollos, some were called by Peter, some were
called by Christ when He walked this earth, perhaps. I don't
know what they meant by that. We'll see when we get to it.
But here they all are. But they're divided. They're
speaking like they're not one body. They're speaking like they're
not one church because some were of Paul, some of Apollo, some
of Peter, some of Christ. Because they were called at different
times, because they were called in different places, because
they were called in different congregations. They're saying
that we're of this group, not that group. Now look at Paul's
answer. Is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Now, I'm not
saying, let's take a bunch of, let's look up all the names of
the church, and let's look up all the names of assembly, and
let's look up all the names of congregation, and let's argue
this thing from a word study. Is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Christ's body is not divided.
Christ is the head, and His church is His body. We're one in Christ.
The very purpose of Christ's work is to make His people all
one in Christ. That was the purpose of His work.
Was Paul crucified for you? Was Apollos, or Peter, or this
preacher, or that preacher, or that denomination, or this denomination,
or that church, were they crucified for you? Christ was crucified
for His people. Ephesians 5.25 says, Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for it. And if he was talking about
multiple churches, men, then he's teaching us we can cheat
on our wives because his whole point in that context is telling
you, you love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. Just one. Just one. You see what
I'm saying? And then look what he said, verse
13, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Every true believer
baptized, no matter where they are, they're confessing that
when Christ died, I died. When Christ was buried, I was
buried. When Christ arose, I arose. So that we're all one. We baptize one baptism professing
one message, one Christ. A party spirit A divisive spirit. You know, the spirit like you
see with the Republicans and the Democrats. That divisive
spirit, that party spirit. This is my party and that's your
party. That kind of spirit is not of God, it's of Satan and
it's of sin. It's carnal. It's carnal. To
use a preacher, to use a denomination, to use a location, any carnal
thing that I can see to self-exalt one over the other and promote
division is sinful. Christ unites His people. Christ
unites. In the fullness of time, God's
going to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven and on the earth, even in Him. In one. Sin's been dividing us from the
garden. Christ's been uniting His people from the beginning. And He's going to keep on until
He's brought us all together in one. His church is one. His
church is one. His eternal purpose is one. I've
learned three things over time about these folks who want to
argue for a division like this. And it's been close to me. It's
been in my family. And men that want to argue that,
I can tell you three things. Three things I've learned about
it. Number one, it's always a defense of a denomination and their doctrine. It's never for Christ's glory.
Number one. Number two, it's chiefly so preachers,
chiefly now, this is the reason behind it. This is the heart
of it right here. So preachers can improperly use
the Lord's table as a means of discipline rather than properly
using it to remember the Lord. That's the number one purpose
for it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people
say, well, if you're a member of every church, then how are
you going to discipline your people? And it's the number one reason
to use the Lord's Table as a means to discipline the members. And
number three, men who will not fellowship with a true preacher
of Christ, men who will break fellowship with a true preacher
of Christ who preaches the gospel over an issue like that, prove
one thing. That issue, their church and
their doctrine means more to them than Christ and Him crucified.
I've known a lot of men who don't agree. I have brethren, I don't
agree with them on everything that we preach, in every detail
and in every area. But we all believe on Christ
and crucified, and we're not going to let these other things
break that, that fellowship we have in Him. So we lay aside
those things that are lesser for this that's true, but the
man who will let that break your fellowship, He's showing you
what means the most to Him. Showing you what means the most
to Him. Now that's true. Christ our Head teaches His children
this. Endeavor to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. For there's one body and one
Spirit. even as you call Him. One hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all, in Him you are."
Now that's what he teaches his church wherever they are in this
world, wherever they are. All right, lastly. The church
at Corinth had a problem with pride of grace. pride of grace. This was really the root of the
biggest portion of their problems, was pride of grace. And by that
I mean they had pride over their gifts. They were misusing their
gifts because of that. They had pride over their oratory. This was Greece, you know. And
they put a lot of emphasis on preaching with great oratory,
public speaking skills and all of that. They put an emphasis
on their knowledge. They were arguing over how much
they knew. You know, this was Greece. And
their faith and other things. This was causing further division,
pride of grace. Now brethren, you might find
in the church at Corinth, I think you could do that. I think if
you looked at the church at Corinth, you might be able to find the
seed of every kind of denomination and every kind of division and
every kind of separating thing there is existing in the church
today. I think you can find it all right here in its seed form
in the church of Corinth. So many things that they were
divided over. So many things. But Paul reminds us here, everything
we have and everything that we shall have is by the grace of
God, by Christ Jesus. So we don't have a reason to
be proud of anything. Look here at verse 4. I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. God's church is saved by grace
alone. By grace alone. Grace is freely
given by God to whoever God will give it to. And all the gifts
that come from grace, or all the gifts that come, all come
from grace. And they all come by Jesus Christ. We all sinned. We all came short of the glory
of God. That's everybody that God's going to save into His
church. We all sinned and came short of the glory of God, just
like everybody else in the world did. All we merited is Damnation
and separation from God. That's all. So everything's got
to be by grace. God's got to choose us by grace
and redeem us by grace and call us by grace. And this all is
by Christ. Christ perfected us by His offering. And Christ purchased all the
spiritual blessings that He gives His people. He purchased them
all. They're His to give. Listen to Ephesians 4, 7. Unto
every one of us is given grace. according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. He can give us what He wants
to give us, how much He wants to give us, when He wants to
give it. He purchased all the gifts. They're His to give. And
therefore, salvation begins by grace. And because it begins
by grace, when we fall into these schisms, and these divisions,
and these factions, and these errors, and this pride, and this
sin, and all this stuff, God don't cast His people away, because
He's going to keep saving them by grace. That's the good thing
about grace. Notice here, Paul put more concern
on God's glory and God's will and God's work by Christ and
in Christ than he did on any of their errors and any of their
division here. He said, despite all their pride
and their error and all that, he said, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God given you by Jesus Christ.
That's what grace will do in a believer. Grace in a believer
will make him, even though his patience is tested, even though
sometimes he just thinks, oh, he just can't figure out why
you hear these words come out of this mouth and then do that
instead of what you heard come out of here. Why? But still he
thanks God, knowing it's by God's grace. He's given you a heart
to come and hear this gospel and He saved you by it. Now look
at this. What did He give us by His grace?
Verse 5. In everything you are enriched
by Him. Everything. Everything. Everything. Verse 5. He is going
to address some of the things they were proud of. In all utterance
and in all knowledge. They had some preachers there.
And they had some teachers there. And at that time, they even had
some that God had gifted with the ability to speak in foreign
languages that they had never learned before. He don't give
that now, but they had it then. And they were proud of those
things. And we're going to see, they were misusing those gifts.
And Paul says here, if you're a teacher or a preacher or you
have some knowledge of God, you don't have any room to boast.
That's the gift of God's grace. Freely given by God. Freely given
by God. Look, then he says this in verse
6. Even as the testimony of Christ, the gospel of Christ was confirmed
in you. How many times have you heard
people say, Well, at least I got my faith. Or they talk about
their faith. How strong their faith is. Well,
I remember when I believed on, I gave my heart to Jesus and
I let Him be the Lord of my life and this and that. You know what
Paul is telling us right here? Christ preached the testimony
of Christ. Christ preached the gospel of
Christ and Christ confirmed the gospel in the hearts of His child.
His apostles and all his preachers preached the testimony of Christ,
and Christ confirmed it in the hearts of His child. He's saying,
you and I don't have any room to boast even of our faith, because
the gospel was confirmed in our heart. And the word confirmed
means established. Established in our heart by Christ.
That's grace. And then all extraordinary gifts
you might have. He says, verse 7, He did all
this so that you become behind in no gift. You come behind in
no gift. The church at Corwinth was greatly
blessed of God. They didn't come behind in any
gift of any church out there. They had gifts above and beyond
what any other church had. But He said, everything you got,
God freely gave it to you. God freely gave it to you. They
didn't have any room to boast. And even our perseverance. You
see Paul here, he's just pulling, like a drowning man grabbing
for a plank, and he's just pulling one away after another, so there's
nothing that they can grab onto and boast about. What about our
perseverance in faith? He says this, verse 7, you're
waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also
confirm you unto the end. He confirmed you in the beginning.
He established you in the beginning. He's going to establish you to
the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We're all waiting for the second coming of Christ.
Every believer is. That's our hope. We've got a
good hope. But how are we going to get from here to there? Who's
going to make us persevere in faith? We've got to be preserved. And He's going to establish us
just like He did in the beginning. He that's begun a good work in
you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ. He'll do
it. Verse 9. God is faithful. God is faithful. He didn't say, you're faithful.
He said, God is faithful. God is faithful by whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
We're not faithful. Have you figured that out? We're
not faithful. We're not faithful. No, our faith
is imperfect. Our gifts are imperfect. We would
surely fall away if he left us to ourselves. God is faithful. He chose us by grace. He redeemed
us by grace. He regenerated us by grace. He
called us by grace. He's preserved us by grace. He
gifts us by grace. He's going to bring us home by
grace and present us faultless before his throne by grace. And
he's not going to lose any. And it's all going to be because
of his grace. His grace. That humbles the true believer.
That brings us down to see, I mean, I'm totally dependent on Christ. On God, my Father. On Christ,
His Lord. Christ, my Lord. Now look at
this. This is what's humbling too. He's called us into the
fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now try to
get the meaning of this, and I'm going to be done here. Fellowship
includes union and communion with Christ and with our brethren,
with Christ and with His church. union and communion. Each of
us here and every believer in his church all over this world,
this church, this local church, and the local church at Anvil,
and the local church at Crossville, and wherever else there's a local
church, his church together have one heartbeat, brethren, just
one. We got one heart, one heartbeat.
We've been made to partake of the same blood of Christ. That's what fellowship means.
We've been made to partake of the same Holy Ghost. We've been
made to partake of the same life, and that's Christ dwelling in
us, members of His body. We've been made to partake of
the same divine nature and character with Christ dwelling in us. We've
been made to partake of the same sufferings here, and we'll be
partaking of the same glory hereafter. This is what it is to be a fellow
shipper. Fellows in the same ship. And
Christ is the captain. And you and I are all fellows
in that ship by His grace. Partaken of the same grace, the
same spirit, the same blood, the same body, the same life,
the same everything we have in Christ. And we're preserved by
the same sovereign Lord and Savior. And He's all, and He's in all,
and He's the one filling all in all. So here's the point. You know how at the beginning
of my message I always say, now here's the main point. Alright,
Paul gets to the main point now. That was his introduction. Paul
comes to the main point of the whole epistle. And he's going
to teach this over and over. He's going to beseech this over
and over. And we're going to hear it over and over through
this epistle. Here's his point right here. Verse 10, Now I beseech
you, Brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. And I'll tell you this, if we're
Christ, that's going to be the result. That's going to be what
he's going to bring about right there. Amen. Wait. Y'all listen. I won. I outlasted him. All right, Brother Eric.